Leitmotif

Little pieces of a life

Andrew Dawson is excitedly telling us about a company who film train journeys; no commentary, just a camera stuck to the front of the engine. He plays us the video – Bognor Regis to Victoria – and hops excitedly into the frame to point out the corner he stood on as a teenage trainspotter.

Leitmotif makes leisurely circles around three years of Dawson’s life using video, dance and tender fragments of autobiography. His dance pedigree is unassailable, but the physical pieces somehow manage to be both delicate and ponderous; they sit awkwardly alongside slapstick animations played for laughs that don’t always come, and nothing, sadly, recreates the charm of that first enthusiasm.

It’s the kind of introspection you’d expect from a much less experienced artist, and as the train finally pulls into Victoria we’re all too aware of the signposted symbolism, even before Dawson suggests we might find our own ‘journey’ in the video library. (Kirstin Innes)